Professor Makes A Union Of Academics And Music

Lucky Halker hardly looks like a college professor. Young and handsome, with an unruly shock of wavy, dark hair flecked with gray, he looks more like a graduate student on summer vacation break.

Halker, in fact, combines two quite different professions-music and academia-and, as he himself admits, the combination is not always an easy one. ``Academics are basically conservative people,`` he says. ``They`re very suspicious of my nonacademic experience. They fear it`s a conflict. I don`t think it is. I think I`m a better teacher for it. I happen to feel that putting an album out every couple of years is as valuable as putting out one more dreary-eyed academic article.``

He describes himself as ``a real eclectic madman``-he admires Van Morrison, Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello-and his music reflects a diversity of styles from rock and blues to country and folk.

Like fellow Midwesterners John Mellencamp and John Prine, this ``rock `n` roller of sorts`` sings about the common folk-laid-off workers, ex-GIs, Great Lakes sailors, loggers, stationmasters, hobos and union men.

He writes of cross-country bus rides to nowhere, pays homage to the working class character of Chicago neighborhoods and warbles Wobbly laments.

Labor and protest songs are his specialty.

Thousands of labor songs were composed during the latter half of the 19th Century, he says, most written by the workers themselves.

``There`s a rich body of working-class music and poetry that nobody`s really bothered to look at,`` he says.

In addition to performing in clubs and festivals, Halker has conducted workshops, participated in community outreach programs and taught courses on popular culture.

Now he`s concentrating on getting ``a good band`` together, establishing a following and continuing to write songs.

Who: Bucky Halker.

Real name: Clark Halker.

Age: 34.

Place of birth: Beaver Dam, Wis.

Academic credentials: Doctorate in American history from the University of Minnesota.

Split personality: Halker was named after ``Bucky the Badger,`` the University of Wisconsin mascot, a childhood nickname that stuck. His given name, Clark, he says, ``is getting more attractive`` as he gets older.

Soon to be hot off the presses: ``For Democracy, Workers and God: Labor Songs, Poems and Labor Protest 1865-1895`` from the University of Illinois Press.

Will be appearing at: Midwest People`s Music Network`s ``Chicago: From Haymarket to Harold and Beyond,`` 8 p.m. Friday in the Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge Ave., Evanston; 864-0737; $5 donation.